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MORAL EDUCATION. 



A LECTURE 

DELIVERED AT NEW BEDFORD, AUGUST 16, 1842, 



THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION: 



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GEORGE B. EMERSON, ^-^ 

U.S. A. ")) 



PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE. 




(published by a vote of the institute.) 



The subject assigned to me by the Committee of Arrangements is 
Moral Education. It seems to be generally admitted, that no part of 
education is so important, and none so much neglected, as this. Such 
IS the language of the school returns in this State ; such is the testimony 
of those who have visited the Common Schools in the other States, and 
of all who are acquainted with the course and manner of instruction 
wherever the English language is spoken. This is at once an encour- 
aging and a terrible admission. It is encouraging, because the first 
step towards the correction of an evil, is to admit its existence and its 
enormity. But it is terrible to know that, with all our boasted advance- 
ment, we still fail of this great and all-important end. To neglect 
the moral element while we cultivate the lower propensities and the 
intellect, is to mistake the plan of the Creator, who, in making man, 
has endowed him with all the faculties of a brute, and all the capacities 
of a demon, but has made him a little lower than the angels by lighting 
within him that flame which burns with an ethereal light, significant 
of its heavenly origin ; it is to let this celestial flame go out, while we 
minister fuel to the consuming fires of the brutal and demoniacal parts 
of our nature. 

To come forward to point out the fearful mistake we have made, and 
to presume to show how it may be corrected, should need, I am aware, 
an apology. While there is a class of men, whose high office it is to 
educate our moral and spiritual powers, to reinstate conscience on its 
throne, and show us how all else should be brought in subjection to it, 



2 

it would have been much more fit that one of this class should now 
occupy this place, and teach us tliis lesson ; and I cannot but feel how 
much more reverently, on such a subject, you would have listened to 
his voice. But they have done their part of the work. The great 
truths have been clearly declared. The high principles have been elo- 
quently laid down. An humbler but not less essential part is ours ; 
not to reason out new truths, not to bring new illustrations, but to draw 
conclusions which may be applicable to the daily duties of our life, and 
faithfully, wisely, and courageously, to apply them. 

In treating this subject, we shall first endeavor to ascertain what is 
to be done. What is the moral education at which we should aim ? 
In the second place, What have we to act upon ? And lastly, How 
shall we effect our purpose ? 

WHAT IS MORAL EDUCATION ? 

What, then, is moral education ? It is to awaken conscience, to 
give it activity, and to establish the preeminence which belongs to it 
among the feelings, propensities, and powers, of the human mind and 
character. 

ftit comprehends moral instruction and moral training, the teaching 
what the duties are, and the formation of moral habits. It is the educa- 
tion of the conscience which has been chiefly neglected ; yet this, more 
than any other part of our nature, should receive, from the beginning, 
constant and careful attention. 

THE STUDY OF MIND. 

An examination of what we are to act upon, will show the truth of 
this position, and indicate an answer to the third question, How is it 
to be effected ? 

Whatever may be our object in teaching, whether it be merely to 
teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, or, in connection with them, to 
communicate information which shall be useful to our pupils in future 
life ; or the higher one of disciplining the powers of the mind, so as to 
give them their greatest energy and activity ; or this highest object, of 
adding to all these an education of the moral nature, which shall make 
our pupil come forth prepared for action, full of respect for right, and 
of reverence for the Author of right, and fitted *' to perform, justly, 
skilfully, and magnanimously, all offices, both private and public;" — 
whatever view we take of our duty, we must act upon the mind, and 
it would seem to be essential that we should know something of the 
mind on which we would act ; of the human character, of all its ele- 
ments, as they exist in the constitution of a child. 

Here is the most complex and curious piece of machinery ever made, 
— the work of a hand divine. 

" How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and mov- 
ing, how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in ap- 
prehension, how like a god ! " — Can the knowledge of this come to us 
intuitively ? I exhort you to make it a study. What study can be 
more worthy or more suitable ? Remember, it is not many things, but 
one, one wonderful machine of many parts, — all so related as to be de- 
pendent on each other ; all essential ; each unintelligible without some 



3 

knowledge of the rest. All must therefore be known, — body, mind, 
soul, — if you would act, with any hope of success, on the highest. 

If you were about to engage, in a capacity higher than that of a day 
laborer, in any other pursuit than that of teaching, would you not set 
yourself at once to understand what was the object which you should 
endeavor to have in view, and what the machinery by which you could 
attain it ? If you were going to manufacture woollen goods, you would 
wish to understand the nature of the raw material, the processes and 
machinery by which it is to be acted on, and to judge of the quality 
of the article you wished to produce. Will you do less, when the 
mechanism with which you are to operate is the work of an Infinite 
Architect ? and the web to be woven is the rich and varied fabric of 
human character? 

If you were about to engage in agriculture, you would take care to 
inform yourself as to the nature of the soil, its adaptation to the various 
kinds of grain and vegetables, and the season of the year at which, in 
this climate, it is most proper to prepare the ground, to plough, to 
sow the seed, and to reap and gather into the barn. Will you take 
less care, when the soil is the human soul, the seed is the word of life, 
the harvest, the end of the world, and the reapers, angels ? 

If you were going to navigate the ocean, you would wish to know 
how to judge of the ship, to sail and steer ; you would inquire about 
the currents that would set you from your course, and the winds that 
should bear you onward ; you would learn to trace the moon's course 
among the stars, and to look aloft to the sun in his path, that you 
might not drift at random on the broad sea, but speed towards your 
desired haven, as if you could see it rising before you above the blue 
waves. So much you would do that you might convey in safety a few 
tons of merchandise ; and all men would hold you unwise if you did 
less. Shall they not tax you with worse than folly if you make less 
preparation when your ship is the human soul, freighted with a parent's 
and a nation's hopes, with the hopes of immortality, — if you fail to 
study the currents of passion, to provide against the rocks of temptation, 
and to look aloft for the guiding light which shines only from Heaven ?• 

But to speak without simile, the study of mind is of the greatest 
importance to a teacher, in every point of view. If we would exercise 
the several powers, we must know what they are, and by what disci- 
pline they are to be trained. If we would cultivate them harmonious- 
ly, in their natural order and proportion, we must know which of them 
first come into action, which are developed at a later age, and what 
are the province and functions of each. Without this knowledge, we 
can hardly fail of losing the most propitious times for beginning their 
cultivation ; we shall make the common mistake of attempting certain 
studies too soon, or we shall adopt means little suited to the ends we 
have in view. 

Important as this study is, it is no more difficult than any other, 
if, in regard to it, we take the same course which we find the true one 
in other investigations, — if, laying aside conjectures, dreams, and specu- 
lations, we adopt the safe and philosophical rule, to observe carefully and 
extensively the facts, and draw from them only their legitimate conclu- 
sions. There are three sources from which we are to draw light ; first, 
the facts of our own consciousness, the most difficult of all to consult ; 



4 

second, the facts we observe in the mental growth of others, especially 
of children ; and last, the great storehouse of recorded facts contained 
in the works of those who, directly or indirectly, have written upon 
this subject. 

I have no thought of going into this wide field of inquiry. I am 
only desirous of contributing the mite of my own experience to the 
common treasure of truth in regard to the question before us. I freely 
confess that, however admirable are the writings of what are called the 
metaphysicians, — and some of them are certainly among the richest, lof- 
tiest, most eloquent, and delightful writers, in the Greek, French, and 
English languages, — I say nothing of the unknown vast of German 
metaphysics, — however much of grand conception, of elevating thought, 
of food for the mind in its highest mood, I may have found, or of spec- 
ulation which enlarged the boundaries of mental dominion, — I have 
derived from them little of practical value, to guide me in the daily 
routine of my duties. Their work has been done. Its effects are in 
the world ; and it would be vain and idle to deny the good wrought 
for humanity by the divine Plato, — the ideal of sublime imagination, — the 
severe Aristotle, — the close observer, reducing all the processes of hu- 
man thought to the necessary laws of truth, — the all-embracing Cousin, 
the polished Stewart, the philosophic Reid, the eloquent Brown, and 
the crowd of others, who occupy the upper air. None, doubtless, have 
done more than these to advance this very work in which we are engaged ; 
but in this empyrean, I have seen no one leading star, upon which I 
could fix my eyes and go safely over the dark and stormy waves. 

To confine ourselves to the one subject before us, the first, so far as 
I know, who, reasoning from the facts of human nature, and guided 
by the gospel, has given its true place to the conscience among the el- 
ements of human character, is Bishop Butler. His three discourses 
upon Human Nature place in a clear and prominent light this whole 
subject of the subordination of the other parts of our constitution, and 
the preeminence and authority of the conscience, — by which he evi- 
dently means the natural sentiment of conscientiousness enlightened 
by an examination of our manifold relations and kindled by reflection. 
All his discourses are of great practical value to the teacher who 
would teach a code of morals founded at once upon reason and the 
light of nature, and upon revelation. It is true, they demand serious 
study, but they richly deserve the profoundest thought that can be 
given to them. 

I would next refer you to the author of a discourse upon the " Consti- 
tution of Man." I insist not upon the physiological views on which this 
work professes to have been built. I long held them in derision, and 
am still too ignorant in regard to them to have an opinion of any value. 
I speak now only of the classification of the propensities, sentiments, 
and faculties, which it contains, and the observations which are made 
upon them. By these a light is thrown upon the path of the educator 
which he looked for in vain from any other source. 

I would also refer you to the works of the writers upon physiology, 
particularly to the work of Dr. Combe. So intimately are all the parts 
of the human constitution connected, and so vitally do the mental and 
moral depend upon the physical powers, that we can understand either 
only by studying them in connection with the others. For this reason, 



the knowledge of the laws of the structure, growth, development, and 
health of the body, is essential to a comprehension of the corresponding 
particulars in the phenomena of mind. And in no other way do we 
learn the all-important law, that every faculty of body and mind, every 
sentiment and every affection is to be improved by exercise. 

I have pointed out the three sources from which we are to ob- 
tain information in regard to that point in the philosophy of mind 
which is important to us in our present inquiry, — reflection upon what 
has occurred and is occurring within ourselves, observation upon the 
facts exhibited by others, and the study of books. From each of these 
we infer the fact that the conscience begins to act with the very dawn 
of our faculties, and with it begin the two other essential elements of 
the moral nature, — love and veneration. Few of us can look back in 
memory to the time before which we had no feelings of right and 
wrong, or of affection for our friends, or of reverence for the Author 
of our being. And though each of these sentiments manifests itself 
with different degrees of force in different individuals, yet how con- 
stantly do we observe, in children of the tenderest age, an artlessness 
of truth, a warmth of affection, and a confiding humility and sincerity 
of reverence, which bring to our hearts the words of the Savior, " Of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." We have no epithets for purity, in- 
nocence, truthfulness, loveliness, trust, which mean so much as the 
single word childlike ; and Jesus, when he would answer the question, 
" Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven," " called a little child 
unto him, and set him in the midst of them." Thus we have light from 
heaven thrown upon the conclusion which we had drawn from our 
earliest faini recollections of infancy, from the angelic aspect and first 
acts of childhood, and from the recorded observations of other men. 
At this age, then, moral education should begin, and the first teacher 
must be the mother. 

This is not the occasion to dwell on maternal influence. But let it 
be remembered that it often rests upon the mother to give a shape to 
the future character. Reverence, truth, love, must exist in her breast, 
before she can impart them to her child. And perfect physical health, 
so important to the nurse of her own offspring, is but an emblem of 
the healthfulness of soul, which she should possess. Unless the moral 
education be early and rightly begun, it will be in danger of beginning 
wrong at a later period. If, therefore, the mother would save her 
child from the infinite evils of a perverted education, she must begin 
herself to educate him aright ; she must begin to teach him that heaven- 
inspired lesson, to do justly, to love mercy, and to ivalk humbly with God, 
— that wonderful epitome of duty to which human wisdom has been 
unable to add. Let the mother see to it that the first words which 
the child learns shall be words of truth, and that he be not, by act or 
look, by fear or by bribery, taught the arts of deception. Justice is 
of such moment that it must never be violated to the value of a pin. 
" Go back," said a Christian mother to her boy, " carry the pin back 
and restore it; it is not thine." This simple lesson made an impression, 
which years and the world's wisdom never erased ; for nothing is 
little in the education of a child. And with men, as well as children, 
a violation of justice, no matter in what amount, is a great violation. 
Great injury is done to the conscience by giving softening names to 



6 

bad things. A falsehood should be called a lie, and not Sifih, and any 
departure from truth should be looked upon as reprehensible. He had 
studied the boundaries of truth, and the path which leads to falsehood 
carefully, who said that a child ought not to be allowed to state that 
as having happened in one window, which had actually taken place in 
another. Exact truth is the only rule for children. 

In regard to the law of affection, it can hardly be necessary to say 
any thing. A mother's heart is usually right and true on that point, 
however false and wrong it may be on every other. The union of the 
law of love with that of justice in the Christian rule, Judge not, is of 
too great importance to be omitted. The child should, from the be- 
ginning, be taught to obey this command. He should be shown that 
he cannot look into the thoughts of others, or see with their eyes, and 
that, therefore, what in himself would be a lie, may in his brother be a 
mistake. Thus, from his earliest years, may he be taught not to look 
at the mote in his brother's eye. 

MORAL INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOL. 

But our business is particularly with the school, and we come now 
to the consideration of the third question, By what means moral 
education is to be conducted there. 

We have seen that the essential point in moral education is to 
awaken the conscience, to give it activity, and to establish it in the 
preeminence which, by the ordinance of the Creator, belongs to it ; 
that it comprehends moral instruction, — the teaching what the duties 
are, — and moral training, or the formation of moral habits ; and we 
have seen what knowledge of the human constitution is necessary to 
qualify us to understand and to perform this part of our duty. 

HOW TO AWAKEN THE CONSCIENCE. 

What, then, are we to do to awaken the conscience, on the suppo- 
sition that ii has not already been done before the child is sent to 
school? I say awaken, because I believe that instruction can do 
nothing to create what does not already exist. The conscience is 
there, at the bottom of the heart ; but it may be that it sleeps. From 
utter neglect it may have become torpid. The fire kindled by the 
hand of God still burns ; it is not extinguished, though it may give no 
light ; it may be dim from a parent's neglect ; it may be smouldering 
under the ashes of early sin. What shall we do to rekindle it and 
raise it to a flame ? What have the teachers of righteousness in all 
ages done? What the inspired lawgiver and prophets of the Jews? 
What did the Savior do ? He addressed himself directly to the con- 
science. " Swear not at all." " Resist not evil." "Give to him that 
asketh thee." " Be ye perfect." " Seek ye first the kingdom of God." 

So must we address ourselves directly to the conscience. But to be 
felt, the address must come from the conscience. Formal words have 
no effect. Dull dissertations, or sermons upon duty, serve only to 
create apathy. Words that burn, must come from a heart kindled as 
by a live coal from oflf the altar. A few such words, uttered from 
a deep and sincere conviction of duty, go to the conscience, and will 
hardly fail to arouse it. If the children have been made famihar with 
the vital moral teachings of the New Testament, it will be sufficient 



to show, of any particular duty, that it flows naturally from that 
fountain ; or that a particular vice is forbidden, directly or indirectly, 
there. If the child be not familiar with these truths, the teacher must 
hasten to make him so. And for this purpose the lessons of the Great 
Teacher must be daily read, and their appUcation to the whole circle 
of human duties pointed out. If any one finds that he can gain 
light from other sources, let him obtain it thence. I only say that, 
for myself, I must go first to Jesus Christ. In his Sermon on the 
Mount, and in his other discourses, I find instruction which the voice 
within me assents to and confirms, for which I look in vain to all other 
beings that have lived. In his parable of the talents, I find a command 
which comes with more authority, the more I dwell upon it, to culti- 
vate to the utmost every faculty with which I have been endowed; 
and this is the lesson which it may teach others. We must obtain 
assistance wherever we can find it. Beginning here, we must look 
through creation and time, interrogate history, and the course of 
things, and hsten to every voice which promises to give us wisdom. 
For our office is no less than to teach all the laws of nature and of 
Providence ; those which govern the body and the intellect ; those 
which relate to our moral and religious nature. We must, therefore, 
understand and point out our relation to God, the Creator of the body 
as well as the soul, the Author of all laws, — the material and organic, 
as well as the mental and moral. And it is only by insisting upon the 
duty of obedience to all of God's laws, that we can render the empire 
of conscience coextensive with our relations to all of his creatures. 

HOW TO CULTIVATE THE CONSCIENCE. 

We have next to inquire what tends directly to enlighten and culti- 
vate this moral sense. 

The same means by which we have sought to awaken it, direct 
addresses to it. In regard to every act, we are to ask, or lead the child 
to ask, " Is it right ? " not, " Is it expedient ? " " Will it be well thought 
of? Will it advance me in other men's estimation ? " but, ''Is it right ? " 
"Is it consistent with God's laws ? " " Is it kind ? " 

And here I would make a suggestion which is of importance. It 
should be our object not to impose the laws of our own conscience 
upon our pupils, but to excite theirs to action. The difTerence is in- 
finite. In one case we make blind followers, in the other, independent 
agents. In the one case we make respect for our opinions, thoughts, 
or reason their guide, in the other, their own perceptions of right and 
wrong. In the one case we give them a thread, by holding which 
they may be able to follow us as long as we are with them ; in the 
other, we place within them a guide, ever watchful, and constantly 
more intelligent, to accompany them through life. 

The conscience is to be enlightened by giving instruction in 
regard to the various duties. The child must be first made to under- 
stand his relation to the Creator, and a deep sense of his universal 
presence must be impressed upon him. His attributes must be dwelt 
upon ; his infinite goodness, his all-comprehending wisdom, his 
boundless power, his holiness, his justice, and the thence resulting duties 
of habitual reverence and worship. The profanity of children is more 
frequently thoughtlessness than deliberate impiety, and a desire to 



8 

offend God. And frequent addresses upon his character and presence 
will be more effectual than any thing else to correct it. Intelligible 
and striking illustrations of the goodness of God may be drawn 
from the external creation, the beauty of the fields, the waters, 
the sky, and the objects which live and move therein, the grateful 
variations of the seasons, the balmy air, the pleasant light, the hap- 
piness of existence. From the same source may be drawn illustrations 
of his wisdom, and especially from the wonderful structure of our own 
body. His power is shown in the vastness of the creation, in the 
sun and stars, and the motions and perfect regularity of all his great 
works. The sublime account of the creation in Genesis, and many 
glorious passages in the Psalms and in the Prophets, may be read to 
children in school to impress these great truths upon them. 

Every object in creation is different, and the minister of different 
feelings and thoughts, according to the view we have been accus- 
tomed to take of it. A tree, according as we look upon it, is 
either a mere tall, growing thing, to be cut into fuel, or sawn into 
plank, or it is one of the noblest and most beautiful of God's works, 
rising toward heaven, as should our prayers, bringing the influence 
of the clouds upon the earth, sheltering cattle beneath its shade, 
and birds in its branches, ministering, by its shape, its colors, and its 
motions, to man's sense of beauty, and exhibiting, in its admirable 
structure, such laws of arrangement, growth, strength, durability, as 
tax man's utmost wit to understand and admire. Should not children, 
if possible, be so instructed, as to see whatever of good and beauty 
there is to be seen in every part of the creation, so that they may 
ever walk as in God's temple ? Should they not be so educated that 
their daily and constant associations with the objects which present 
themselves to their senses, may be on the side of benevolence and 
happiness, of wisdom and truth ? The exalted strains of Milton, 
Thomson, Cowper, Young, Coleridge, Bryant, and other poets, may 
be employed for the same purpose. Portions of them, after a full and 
feeling explanation from the teacher, may be committed to memory, — 
so that, while the imagination is stored with images of beauty, the 
memory may furnish fit expression for the feelings they suggest. To 
a person so educated, the stillness of night, with the starry canopy 
above, would not fill the mind with fears of goblins and ghosts, but 
would raise it to wonder and adoration, and the warm emotions of the 
heart would burst spontaneously, with a rapt, poetic glow, into words, — 

" There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st, 
But in his motion like an angel sings ; " — 

or clothe itself in the sublime expressions of worship, — 

" These are thy glorious works, Parent of good. 
Almighty." 

SOCIAL DUTIES. 

Next in importance are our social duties, — those which arise from our 
relation to our fellow-creatures, and are comprehended in the second 
great commandment of the New Testament. 

These should be daily and regularly explained and enforced. The 
general neglect of this most important part of education seems to 
oroceed partly from a belief that it is sufficiently provided for by the 



9 

instruction of parents, and of the ministers of religion. If instruction 
in social duties were sufficiently given elsewhere, it would indeed be 
superfluous to insist upon it in school. But this is far from the case. 
A large portion of the parents whose children fill the public schools, 
are either disinclined, or are unqualified by their want of education, or 
by the engrossing nature of their occupations, to give suitable in- 
struction in social duties ; or, what produces the same effect, they con- 
ceive themselves unqualified. At home, then, the instruction is often 
not obtained. Neither is it, in very many cases, at church. Many 
children are of necessity unfrequent attendants at church ; some go 
not at all, — and to many more, the instructions of the pulpit are not 
suited. These are usually addressed to grown men; and if, occa- 
sionally, direct addresses are made to children, — such as are present, 
— they are naturally and properly much more occupied with religious 
than with social duties. A regular course of instruction from the 
pulpit upon social duties, adapted to the capacity of children, is, I 
believe, very rare. This may be right, and I do not mean to say that 
it is not. But it certainly is not right, that, in a country like ours, 
regular, systematic instruction in the social relations and duties should 
no where be given. The schools are eminently a social institution. 
They are provided by law, maintained at the public expense, and 
intended for the instruction of the whole community in those things 
which are essentia! to the public good. They are therefore, especially, 
on every account, the place in which instruction in social duties should 
be given. 

The discovery has been made, and in some places men have begun 
to act upon it, that it is better to prevent the commission of crime, than 
to punish it when committed ; that a merciful code of school laws 
may be made to take the place of a sanguinary code of criminal laws ; 
that good schools are better than bad jails ; that a kind schoolmaster 
is a more useful member of society than a savage executioner ; that 
capital instruction is better than capital punishment ; that it is better 
and easier to teach a boy to love a heavenly Judge, and keep his com- 
mandments, than to teach a man to fear an earthly judge, after he has 
broken the commandments ; that it ispleasanter to spend a long life in 
the service of God and mankind, and the enjoyment of health and 
prosperity, than to divide a short life between the poor-house and the 
prison, and end it on a gallows ; that it is better to prepare men to fill 
their own pockets honestly, than to tempt them to empty their neigh- 
bors' dishonestly. 

If these are truths, the teacher has a most important public duty to 
perform. If it be true that, to form the child, by daily instruction and 
daily training, to a regard for the laws of justice, integrity, truth, and 
reverence, so that he shall grow up mindful of the rights of others, a 
good neighbor, a good citizen, and an honest man, is better and more 
reasonable, than to leave him in these respects unformed or misled, and 
to endeavor afterwards to correct his mistakes and enlighten his moral 
sense by the weekly instructions of the pulpit, and the influence of the 
laws of the land ; — the teacher must give regular and systematic in- 
struction in social duties. If these are truths, the teacher has a great 
work to perform. He has to lay deep the foundations of public 
justice. He has to give that profound and quick sense of the sacred- 
ness of right, and the everlasting obligation of truth, without which, 



10 

law will have no sanctity, private contracts no binding force, the pulpit 
no reverence, justice no authority. If these are truths, and if it is a 
greater thing to form than to reform, it becomes all parents to look to 
it, what manner of men they have for their children's teachers. 

INSTRUCTION IN SOCIAL DUTIES. 

The question recurs, How shall this moral instruction in social 
duties be given ? 

Cases are continually occurring, in every school, of the violation of 
these duties in the intercourse of the children with each other. These 
should never be allowed to pass without the lesson which they suggest. 
A boy may be easily made to understand, that if he injures the property 
of another, or defaces the schoolhouse, he as really violates the law of 
property, as if he took money, since he subjects somebody to an ex- 
pense, which is pecuniary, and also gives trouble ; and if this were 
fully explained, such offences would cease to be so common. The 
same may be said of the petty thefts of books, pencils, and pens. 
They are committed because the offender is not made to understand 
that they are of the same complexion as stealing the money, by which 
these articles were purchased. These are not small matters. A child 
allowed in the commission of such sins, will be in danger of going on, 
by imperceptible degrees, to those more considerable offences against 
property, against which is denounced the rigor of the law. It is found 
that great numbers of those boys who are sent, by a decree of the 
courts, to the House of Reformation in Boston, for offences which sub- 
jected them to imprisonment, took their first lessons on the wharves, 
where they supposed they were not seriously violating property, by 
taking a little molasses from a cask, or a little coffee or sugar from a 
bag or box. They reasoned correctly, doubtless, when they said, that 
if there were no harm in taking a little molasses on a stick, there could 
be none in taking a little more in a tin measure, and carrying it home 
to their poor mothers. And, if there were no harm in taking it 
from a wharf, there could be none in taking it from a grocer's shop. 
But here the law steps in, and declares that to be now criminal which 
before had been innocent, — such a change having been produced in the 
nature of right and wrong, by a hogshead of molasses' crossing a 
wooden threshold ; and the boy who, many a time, had taken a gill 
from the bung with impunity, is condemned, for taking four gills at 
once, to three months' imprisonment, — a sentence which is commuted, 
by the lenity of the court, to a five years' residence at South Boston. 
The boys reasoned correctly ; their only mistake was in supposing that 
they could take any amount, however small, of another person's prop- 
erty without guilt ; and all this could have been made as clear to them 
at school, as it is to you or me. Not that I would recommend this 
process of tracing to consequences. The delicate conscience of a 
child is quick enough to perceive, if it be once aroused, that the real 
sin is in violating property at all, and that the amount makes no dif- 
ference in the real nature of the crime. And it is not conscience, but 
a base, earthly prudence which you address, when you teach a child to 
beware, not of sin, but of the jail or the gallows. Even this low 
motive it may be necessary sometimes to bring into operation ; but let 
it be understood that this is not moral instruction, but prudential, — 
no better than that of the savage Spartan, Beware how you steal. 



11 



TO BE CONNECTED WITH THE STUDIES OF THE SCHOOL. 

The lessons of school present frequent occasions for moral instruc- 
tion. History abounds in them. History has been described as phi- 
losophy teaching by example. It might be called moral philosophy 
so teaching ; for there is no more suitable vehicle of moral instruction. 
And, unless taught under the guidance of a moral principle, the study 
of most periods of history is of very doubtful value. Take the Roman 
history, for example, which enters so largely, in one shape or another, 
into the course of study of those who receive what is called a liberal 
education. Julius Ccesar, in his account of his wars in Gaul,* coolly 
tells us, on one occasion, that he determined to cross the Rhine, that 
is, to invade Germany, for several reasons ; the best of which was, to 
strike terror into the Germans by showing them that the Romans could 
and would invade them if they chose, and a second, to punish a nation 
who had had the temerity to tell him, what was certainly true, that he 
had no rights on their side of the river, and they should there do as 
they pleased. He accordingly builds a bridge, and goes over into Ger- 
many ; and though he cannot find the free nation whom he had seen fit 
to consider his enemy, he burns all the villages and houses he can find, 
destroys the harvests, and having, he says, gone far enough for his glo- 
ry and advantage, he returns, and breaks down the bridge. Now, it is 
common to spend time and take pains to explain the construction of 
this famous bridge. But what must be the moral effect of this history 
if not a word is said of the violation of right by invading an independ- 
ent nation, or of the atrocity of this wanton destruction of villages 
and harvests ? Again ; a Roman, who is often held up as a model of 
the old Roman virtue, was wont to conclude all his speeches with, 
" This I say, and that Carthage should be destroyed ! " What must 
be the effect upon the moral sense of the learner to read, without any 
remark from his teacher upon their violation of humanity, these trucu- 
lent words, uttered by a man who is pointed out to his admiration, in re- 
gard to a city, to destroy which the Romans had no more right than 
we have to invade China ? 

The morality of the Roman poetry and mythology is still less ques- 
tionable. How often has the friendship of Nisus and Euryalus been 
extolled ! The only story we have of them is of their stealing, in the 
darkness of night, into the enemy's camp, and, after having glutted their 
appetite for blood, by the murder, in their sleep, of numbers of their 
enemies, of their being discovered and put to death, in consequence of 
their carrying oflf the spoils. What must be the effect of passing such a 
scene without a comment, speaking only of the fidelity of their friend- 
ship, and saying nothing of the savageness of their midnight murder ! 

Similar observations might be made on the character of most of those 
who figure in heathen history and mythology, both gods and mortals. 
And is the history of Christian nations much better ? Or the writers 
of modern history, the Humes, and Gibbons, and Voltaires, by whom 
we are taught the great lessons of history, — are they safer moral guides ? 
Would you therefore exclude ancient and modern history, and the lit- 
erature of antiquity, from the circle of liberal studies? By no means. 
The same rule would exclude a greater part of our own history. The 

* De Bello Gallico, iv. 16, et seq. 



12 

story of our intercourse with the Indian tribes about us, a story of sys- 
tematic encroachment, wrong, and injustice, has been and is told by 
writers caUing themselves Christian, in a spirit which will hardly gain 
in a comparison with the moral tone of Caesar's Commentaries, and 
which often falls short of the honest faithfulness of Tacitus. These 
books must be read, but it is the business of the teacher to stand by, 
and, pointing to the gospel, to show constantly wherein the character 
of the event or actor falls below that standard. 

This teaching of moral truth by details is a duty of which any faith- 
ful Christian teacher is capable. 

EXPRESS INSTRUCTION IN MORALITY SHOULD BE GIVEN. 

But moral instruction is too important to be left to the occasions 
that may occur in the business of the school, or to those that may be 
presented by the studies that are pursued. The moral sentiments are 
the highest of our faculties, and their education should form an inte- 
gral part of the teacher's plan. Systematic moral instruction can be 
given only by assigning, in the arrangements for each day, an hour at 
which attention shall be exclusively given to it. For this purpose, the 
teacher must provide himself with some good treatise on moral philos- 
ophy, like Wayland's or Parkhurst's, and, selecting a portion, prepare 
himself for each lesson by careful study and thought upon some one 
particular point. Listruction from such a human source should have 
authority given it by quotations from the Scriptures ; and a diligent 
searcher of the Scriptures will not find it difficult to discover passages 
bearing upon every point of human duty. The course I would recom- 
mend is one which I have myself pursued for some years, and which I 
find adapted to the end in view. It is to begin each day by reading a 
selected portion from the New or Old Testament, accompanying it with 
observations upon the particular duty which I wish to enforce. These 
observations need not, and should not, occupy more than five or ten 
minutes. In this way the great cardinal duties may be more or less 
fully explained in the morning exercise of ten or twelve weeks. A 
course of instruction intended to cover a larger period may be more in 
detail, and extend to a greater number of particulars. The great dan- 
ger to be guarded against in these lessons is formality. They lose their 
value as soon as they cease to be earnest. 

PERSONAL DUTIES. 

The third class of duties in which a child should be instructed, in- 
cludes personal duties, — his duties to himself. These duties are of 
great importance, as it is upon a knowledge of and obedience to them, 
that the happiness of his existence will depend. These duties are com- 
prehended in self-knowledge, self-control, and self-culture. In regard 
to these, more instruction is needed, and less is usually given, than in 
regard to either of the other two classes. To urge us to discover and 
perform our duties in this respect, the deep-seated desire of happiness, 
the strongest and most universal of our desires, seems to have been 
implanted. Yet so deplorably have these duties been overlooked, so 
lamentably have they been disregarded, that we are almost ready to 
conclude that this strong desire has been implanted, as the voice of an- 
tiquity, Know thyself, has been uttered, and the command of Christ 
oeen given, — all equally in vain. 



13 

SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 

Self-knowledge implies a knowledge of the body and its powers, of 
the nature of the animal desires, appetites, and passions, of the intel- 
lectual faculties, and the moral sentiments ; of the laws of the health of 
all these parts of the system, and of the modes by which each is to be 
controlled or cultivated. But why, it may be asked, make a knowledge 
of the body and of the laws of physical health a part of self-knowledge ? 
Who is the Creator of the body ? Who established these laws of 
health ? One would think, from the slight manner in which we often 
find a knowledge of the body and its laws regarded, that it was a com- 
mon opinion that " some of nature's journeymen had made men, and 
not made them well," — so far as the body is concerned. But if the 
body be really God's workmanship, its laws must be God's laws, and 
worthy of man's, or at least of children's, study. 

The body was made by God as the dwelling-place of the soul, and 
they are so connected that the health of the one depends upon the 
health of the other. A person fully convinced of this will feel that he 
has no more right to violate the laws of the health of the body, than 
he has to violate the moral laws, or those relating to the health of the 
soul. If these laws were universally taught, and the conscience made 
to recognize theni, we should soon cease to see, — a sight by which we 
are now so often shocked, — good and religious men sacrificing the 
body, and with it their usefulness, to their fellow-men, by deliberate 
violations of the laws of that Great Being to whose service they profess 
to have devoted themselves, body and soul. 

SELF-CONTROL. 

The next part of personal duty is self-control. The child should be 
early taught that there are parts of his nature which he has in common 
with the brutes ; that these, — the animal propensities, — good within 
certain limits, tend always to excess; a portion of them tempting 
him to beastly sensuality, another portion to falsehood and to savage 
rage and cruelty ; that a great lesson he is to learn is to keep these 
passions and appetites under the control of the higher parts of his na- 
ture, his enlightened reason and conscience ; and that the Savior has 
given instruction of infinite value, when he taught that out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, and when he pronounced a blessing on the pure 
in heart, thus establishing the rule of the wise man of old, " Keep thy 
heart with all diligence." The instruction he obtains from examining 
his own structure, and that obtained from revelation, confirming each 
other in this striking manner, the child will be prepared to admit the 
duty of self-control ; he will understand how he may exert it, and that 
it is his highest interest to exercise it. 

SELF-CULTURE. 

The duty of self-culture is an inference from the knowledge of the 
powers with which man is endowed, and the consideration that these 
are the gift of God, and that it is his will that they should be cultivated 
and improved to the utmost. The child should be taught that he has 
a great variety of faculties, each of which has some object in the exter- 
nal world of things, or in their Author, towards which it is naturally 
directed ; that all are improved, almost indefinitely, by exercise, and 
that happiness is made by the Creator to consist in the exercise of the 



14 

faculties upon their appropriate objects. What kind of information is 
likely to be more practically useful than this, not in procuring wealth, 
but in securing that on account of which wealth has its only value, — 
happiness ? We should convince a child that he has within his own 
nature, at his own control, and almost independent of external circum- 
stances, many sources of happiness which will certainly yield it, if al- 
lowed to flow in their natural, appointed channels. We should show 
him that the objects of his faculties are in the things about him, in his 
fellow-creatures, in the Creator himself; and that he will miss a great 
happiness for every one of these faculties which he neglects to culti- 
vate ; that, if he neglects them all, he will have, instead of exhaustless 
sources of enjoyment, bringing him good from every quarter, only a 
deep sense of unsatisfied desires, of vague, useless longings, which at 
last will make life itself seem to be one long, sad scene of bitter disap- 
pointment. What knowledge, which we can communicate, will be 
more likely to lead him to become a useful man, and a good citizen, 
than a conviction that one of his highest faculties has the happiness of 
his fellow-creatures for its object, and that if he prepares himself to live, 
and does live, a life of active benevolence, he will derive from it con- 
stant and elevated pleasure, which he forfeits and loses by a life of 
selfishness ? What more likely to lead him to strive after perfection, 
than to show him, what he will soon feel in his own consciousness to 
be true, that one of the noblest of his faculties was given him to lead 
him to glorious conceptions of the beautiful, the excellent, the pure, 
the perfect, and to enable him to obey, and to find delight in obeying, 
the divine command, " Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is 
perfect " ? Or what, to make him hold it a reasonable service to rev- 
erence and worship the Infinite Being, than to know that that Being 
has placed first and highest in his child's nature the faculty which 
aspires to worship, as its happiest and worthiest office ? By what 
course will you so surely divest the youthful mind of the fatal error, 
which threatens to blast all that is healthy, and to poison all that is 
pure, in society, that the possession of wealth and power is happiness, 
and their acquisition a lofty end, as by showing that happiness consists 
only in the use of the faculties, according to their nature, upon the ob- 
jects for which they were bestowed ? 

It would be easy to enlarge upon this part of my subject, and it is 
an eminently practical one. But the rapid sketch I am taking forbids 
my dwelling upon any one point, and I have already, perhaps, dwelt 
upon this too long ; but it is impossible to give undue prominence to 
the great and comprehensive duty of so improving and elevating our 
wliole nature as to render it worthy to be consecrated to the service of 
God and man. 

SELF-EXAMINATION. 

Growing out of this duty is the habit of self-examination, which 
should be enjoined upon a child. He may easily be taught to ask 
himself, "Have I done what I ought?" and the habit of comparing 
himself with himself, of asking, " Have I done better ? Have I made 
progress ? Have I faithfully used my faculties ? Have I availed my- 
self, as I ought, of the opportunities which have been presented to me ? " 
This habit may be substituted for the always questionable and often 
pernicious habit of comparing himself with others. I might here enlarge 



15 

upon the dangerous practice of stimulating children by mating them 
against each other, or by otherwise exciting the spirit of rivalry ; — I 
might advert to the mistaken attempts to subdue a child by violence, 
by brute force ; but I have so lately expressed and recorded my senti- 
ments upon these points, that I need now only allude to them. I 
cannot, however, withhold one remark in regard to the questionable 
practice of setting boys to be spies on each other. This tempts them 
to concealment, partiality, and injustice, — sins in comparison with which 
there is no offence against school regulations that can be committed, 
which is not absolutely insignificant. Better should whispering, idle- 
ness, and practical jokes, go unpunished and undetected, than that a 
boy should be led to report unfairly, or not to report what he has seen, 
or to report what he has not seen. Virtue is strengthened by resisting 
temptation, but it is destroyed by yielding. If we create the temp- 
tation, therefore, we should be sure that the virtue is strong enough 
to resist it, 

CAUTIONS AS TO VICIOUS PROPENSITIES. 

In regard to the lower animal propensities, the only safe principle 
is, that nothing should be allowed which would have a tendency, di- 
rectly or indirectly, to excite them. In many places there prevails an 
alarming and criminal indifference upon this point. It is one towards 
which the attention of the teacher should be carefully directed. No 
sound should be suffered from the lips ; no word, or figure, or mark, 
should be allowed to reach the eyes, — to deface the walls of house or 
outhouse, which could give offence to the most sensitive delicacy. 
This is the teacher's business. He must not be indifferent to it. He 
has no right to neglect it. He cannot transfer it to another. He, and 
he only, is responsible. It is impossible to be over-scrupulous in this 
matter. And the committee should see that the teacher does his duty ; 
otherwise, all his lessons in duty are of no avail, and the school, instead 
of being a source of purity, delicacy, and refinement, becomes a foun- 
tain of corruption, throwmg out poisonous waters, and rendering the 
moral atmosphere more pestiferous than that fabled fountain of old, 
over which no creature of heaven could fly and escape death. 

THE teacher's INDIRECT INFLUENCE. 

Another way in which morality is to be taught is, by example and 
influence. And this is the most effectual, and indeed the only effec- 
tual, teaching. It is in vain that you will con the moral lesson, in vain 
will you preach homilies upon virtue and goodness ; unless the heart 
speaks, the words are uttered in vain. The first care of the teacher, 
then, is with his own character, his own heart, his own life. What he 
is teaches. Let him not think to flatter himself, and cajole others, by 
saying he might teach morals if he would. He must, he will, he does 
teach, whether he will or not. If he is really interested in the subject, 
if his moral sentiments are in a state of healthy activity, his whole 
deportment will declare it ; not only his words, but the tone in which 
he utters them, his eye, his features, his step, every thing will speak 
the deep feelings which pervade his inmost breast. He will earnestly 
seek for modes to bring his principles to act upon his pupils, and he 
will find them. 

If he be immoral, his immorality will teach. In spite of himself, it 



IG 

will teach. The profane word, the proud look, the impatient move- 
ment, the harsh expression, the violent tone, the indecent gesture,—- each 
will teach its own bad lesson. The foul breath of the drunkard teaches 
no less really than his foul language. 

If he be of a character which the Great Teacher declares to be far- 
ther from the kingdom of heaven than either, if he be indifferent, — if 
he care for none of these things, — his very lukewarmness teaches. 
To say by one's actions that the great law of justice is of no conse- 
quence, that the love of our neighbor is of no consequence, that the 
reverence and worship of the infinite Father are of no consequence, — 
this is to teach selfishness, injustice, impiety. 

If he be, what is infinitely worse than either, that basest and most 
loathsome of all creatures, that object at once of the abhorrence of 
God and the detestation of good men, a hypocrite, — if he would pass 
with men as a teacher of righteousness, — he still teaches, — the worst 
lesson that can be taught. He clotlies these angels, Charity, Truth, 
Veneration, in the habiliments of goblins damned, and then makes them 
objects of disgust to the poor children who are under his influence. 
He does more. He fills the pure and open heart of childhood with sus- 
picion and distrust. He tempts those who receive his instructions to 
look ever afterwards upon all the ministers of goodness ; the Samaritan, 
upon his errand of mercy ; the simple, just man, who denies himself 
that he may pay the last penny to his creditor ; the sincere man of 
God, whose feelings rise in habitual reverence and thankfulness towards 
Heaven ; — to look upon all these as self-seekers, as interested, as 
deceivers of themselves and others ; to say all in one word, — as 
hypocrites. 

TEACH WITH AUTHORITY. 

In conclusion, let me be allowed to say to my brother and sister 
teachers. If you would teach the great truths of morality effectually, 
you must teach with authority, — with the authority of ar< elevated 
character, of earnest desires and strenuous efforts to do you. duty, — 
of a mind stored with rich and various knowledge, with the spoils of 
time, the observations of men, the fruits of meditation ; with the 
authority of a spirit chastened, exalted, and purified by the teachings 
of the Savior of mankind. If you feel that reverence for God and his 
laws, which you would teach, show the sincerity of your feeling by 
gaining a knowledge of his glorious and magnificent works. If you 
would "justify the ways of God to man," — learn what are the great 
laws of his creation, by studying your own structure, the laws of the 
immortal mind he has given you, by studying the history of mankind. 
If you would show the value of that self-culture, which you would 
enjoin upon your pupils, repress whatever is mean and earthly in your 
own character, and cherish and elevate what is pure and spiritual ; giving 
to every noble faculty of mind and of soul all the activity and energy 
of which it is capable, and showing yourselves as models of the just 
and philosophic spirit, and of the serene and cheerful devotion to labor 
and duty, — which become a servant of God, consecrated to the highest 
purposes of his existence. 

i^uhlished at the office of the Common School Journal, by William B. Fowls 
ANI1 N. Capv.n, No. 1S4 Washington Street, (corner of Franklhi Street,) Boston 



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